August 2011 Archives

If 19-year-old Justin West of Yakima County, Washington learned anything over the weekend, it's that a little bit of Facebook bragging can lead to a lot of trouble.

The teen had been spotted by local law enforcement riding his off-road motorcycle in a residential area Saturday evening, but when they tried to stop him, he sped off into a ditch where the cruiser was unable to follow.

To the list of bizarre drunken driving incidents, add New York's drunk clown DWI. Golfer James R. Straub, who after being described as a drunk clown by residents of Batavia, New York, was arrested for a golf cart DWI on Sunday night.

Police were alerted to Straub's strange behavior when witnesses called to report a man in a "clown suit" driving down the road in a golf cart owned by the local course, reports The Batavian.

Police found Straub, who was actually wearing an ill-conceived and highly colorful golf outfit, driving a stolen golf cart down a public road near Terry Hills Golf Course.

He has been charged with driving (dressing?) while intoxicated and refusing to take a breathalyzer test.

Federal prosecutors pursuing a massage parlor sex-trafficking case in Illinois met with an unexpected roadblock last week: a mistrial. The massage parlor mistrial occurred because the defense attorney, Douglas Rathe, was recognized by one of the testifying masseuses as a former client.

Can you say, awkward?

The case revolved around massage parlors owned by Alex "Daddy" Campbell, who allegedly trained his masseuses to give clients "extras" which included sexual favors. He also demanded money from the masseuses, often illegal immigrant women, threatening to deport them.

That's what Brittany Lurch, 22, and Arthur Phillips, 32, did. The two newlyweds stole reception food hours before their scheduled wedding reception. Unfortunately, their money-saving efforts were foiled by police and they were arrested and charged with misdemeanor counts of retail theft.

Unfortunately, their arrest meant that they were unable to attend their own wedding reception.

Though, it does mean that they might be spending some quality time together defending against the criminal charges.

Stealing a 40-foot party bus wasn't part of his plan, but Steven Hunter of Lincoln, Nebraska, still drunk from a night of debauchery, somehow did just that.

Cited on suspicion of criminal mischief and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle on Saturday night, police allege that Hunter drove the party bus home, somehow abandoning his wallet and a pair of pants onboard in the process.

If you're looking to have some alcohol-fueled fun while learning how to drive, look no further. Driver's ed teacher Frederick Bindner was arrested after he allegedly offered some booze to his students then let them loose on the roadways

Frank Stephenson, a former director of research communications at Florida State University, has sued the school alleging that he was wrongfully terminated once administrators were made aware of his battle with alcohol.

The FSU lawsuit, which is premised on the American's with Disabilities Act, requests $75,000 in damages, and claims that the university should have provided Stephenson with a reasonable accommodation for his "handicap of alcoholism."

Keyona Davis not your model babysitter. Davis, 23, was arrested for felony child neglect after having a friend drive a truck through some busy streets in Florida with an 8-month old infant in the truck bed.

Davis was babysitting for a friend. The baby in the truck bed was in a stroller.

Davis sat in the back with the stroller while the truck was moving, MSNBC reports.

For her part, Davis seemed perplexed as to why she was arrested. "It's not like they give you a handbook or anything on how - what's neglect and what's not neglect," Davis said in court according to MSNBC.

Margaret Howell, a gallery owner in California has sued Todd White, a former lead animator on SpongeBob Squarepants, accusing him of orchestrating an attack on her Huntington Beach gallery in an attempt to take over her business.

The lawsuit seeks $5.5 million from the SpongeBob artist, who allegedly hired four "martial arts experts" to physically assault, rob, and threaten Howell, even though she has been a supporter of his artwork, selling his paintings and drawings in her gallery.

There's nothing like fishing on a hot summer day: the sun in your hair, the feel of a cool lake breeze across your sweaty brow, the view of a naked man fishing... Okay, the last part isn't so pleasant, which might be why Dean H. Meginniss, the naked fisherman, was arrested over the weekend.

Meginniss was letting it all hang loose last Sunday afternoon at Medical Lake, Washington. He was spotted when a witness, who was accompanied by his kids, saw him stand up in his boat, exposing himself for the world to see, KREM-TV reports.

Arrested in April for attempting the in-home circumcision of her 3-month old son late last year, Keemonta Peterson of Portland, Oregon pled guilty to one count of first degree criminal mistreatment on Monday, with prosecutors agreeing to drop all other charges.

As per the plea agreement, the mother of four was sentenced to 5 years probation, ordered to seek mental health treatment, and must work with a specialized mental health probation officer while she serves her sentence.

A grunting Texas "vampire" assaulted a woman in her home in Galveston over the weekend, telling police he "needed to feed" on her blood. Lyle Monroe Bensley, the "vampire" in question, was later arrested on charges of burglary and assault.

Bensley made his way the woman's house early on Saturday. There, he made growling noises while he hit the woman on the head and tried to bite her neck.

At some point, Bensley managed to drag the woman out of the apartment. That's when she broke free. The woman managed to run into a parking lot where she ducked into a neighbor's car. Before they were able to drive away, Bensley caught up with them and banged on the car's exterior, the Houston Chronicle reports.

An incoming freshman at Western Kentucky University, Tyler Webster was made the subject of a planking ban last week, effectively barring him from setting foot on campus until university officials determine whether he will be allowed to start classes in two weeks.

An unnamed 33-year-old woman from Delavan, Wisconsin has filed a herpes lawsuit against her former Edgerton lover, alleging that he exposed her to the sexually transmitted disease and failed to disclose the fact prior to their tryst.

Which happened in the back of his pickup truck.

While they were both married.

Unable to recover from the embarrassment, will the woman be able to recover the $350,000 she has asked for?

Four teens in Colts Neck, New Jersey were arrested last week for stretching plastic wrap across a highway--a stunt that caused a minor motorcycle accident.

Though the cyclist was not harmed, local police are now accusing the 13- and 14-year-old boys of terrorizing the town for days prior, breaking mailboxes, strewing trash, tampering with a child's swing set, and wrapping a neighbor's vehicle in the industrial-strength plastic.

The teens have been charged with interference of transportation, theft, harassment, and criminal mischief.

A deaf man has sued for his right to have an interpreter at a nudist festival. New York resident and deaf nudist Tom Willard filed suit after the Empire Haven Nudist Park refused his request to have a sign language interpreter at one of their festivals.

Empire Haven Nudist Park offers several workshops during their festival. Willard wanted an interpreter present so he could understand what was going on. He even offered to pay for the interpreter himself if Empire Haven discounted his entry into the festival and registration fees, The Post-Standard reports.

The two men allegedly tried to rob a sailboat in Gloucester, Massachusetts. The attempted pirating began when they approached a sailboat in a motorboat. The duo's motorboat bore the iconic skull-and-crossbones flag, according to the Huffington Post.

The two men allegedly took flight in their boat after the owner saw them, the Huffington Post reports, but not before they told the owner that they were "armed."

Back in April, Legally Weird reported on Michael Kevin Lallana, a California man convicted of ejaculating into a water bottle left on his female co-worker's desk.

The judge in that case has now ordered Lallana to pay his victim $27,400 in restitution, covering lost wages, therapy, medical expenses, as well as money expended in having the foul-tasting water tested.

Erik Epperson, a 22-year-old self-described Hello Kitty fan, is currently being held in a federal prison after an FBI investigation showed that he traveled from Indiana to California to have sex with a 14-year-old girl he met on Facebook.

In addition to uncovering the underage liaison, federal agents found a cache of child pornography, including videos of Epperson engaging in sexual intercourse with a group of teenage girls.

He was working at the fair in a Cookie Monster costume. Apparently, Rogers was arrested after he took off the costume head to greet a former parole officer, who then recognized him as being a convicted sex offender, reports KWQC-TV.

Aiming a shotgun at a crop-duster is apparently a crime in Tremont, Illinois where prosecutors have charged 66-year-old Kenneth Phillips with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and disorderly conduct.

Phillips claims the small plane was "dive bombing" near a family gathering at his home on July 21, and that he was merely trying to protect his guests.

A store can never reject you. After all, what kind of business would reject a customer willing to fork over money? Well, apparently Abercrombie & Fitch is one of those businesses.

One California woman felt the sting of rejection after an Abercrombie shop ban meant that she could no longer shop at her favorite store online.

It's strange to think that you could get punished with a shop ban by exhibiting too much customer loyalty.

She wasn't banned entirely from shopping at the retailer. According to Abercrombie & Fitch, Kim Navarra was only banned from making online orders, though she could go to a physical store to shop, reports KGO-TV.

Well, to be more specific, Bausch is a man who trades his pet parrot for a computer and $50, according to WKMG-TV.

Then he steals a parrot (that used to be his).

So, what exactly happened to instigate a parrot-heist? Bausch had allegedly traded in his pet bird, a sun conure worth around $300, with a 64-year-old woman and her 81-year-old mother, WKMG-TV reports.

In a scene straight out of a movie, Andre Glenn Rogers, 19, is being held by police after he allegedly tried to help his father break out of prison by smuggling a bobby pin into a courtroom. His father, Duane Rogers, stands accused of sexual assault.

The former attorney is accused of sexually assaulting a girl over a five-year period between 2003 and 2008. He has a history of trying to elude his trial - he was first scheduled to be tried in September 2009 but when he didn't show authorities found him in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, reports the Daily Camera.

Putting aside the heat-withstanding qualities of nylon bandages and cotton, Ken Wieczerza of Ballston Lake, New York claims that, on June 9, he bit into a leftover slice of Pizza Hut pizza only to find that a blue bandage had been baked into the bottom crust.

Removing it from his mouth, he realized that the bandage also appeared to be spotted with blood.

City attorneys in Dallas have now handed down a lawsuit against Hudson, which are trying to force Hudson to shut down his two "churches," called "The Playground" and "DarkSide," reports ABC News. The suit is civil in nature, and no criminal charges have been filed against Hudson.

What goes on at "The Playground" and "DarkSide"? Authorities say that when they investigated the two so-called religious institutions, they found that one was selling drugs and they saw evidence of a swinger's club in the other one.

An Ohio woman who sprayed her own breast milk on police officers won't be facing a prison sentence. Stephanie Robinette, a former school teacher, will instead be forced to pay a $200 fine plus court costs. She was also sentenced to 2 years in probation.

The breast-milk spraying incident came out of a dispute she had with her husband in late June at the Bridgewater Banquet & Conference center, reports WBNS-TV.

Robinette had struck her husband with a closed fist several times. She then locked herself into the couple's car. The police officers who responded to the incident tried to pull her out of the vehicle. At this point, she removed one of her breasts from her top, pumped it and sprayed breast milk on some of the officers, reports WBNS-TV.

In another of a series of bizarre events occurring in Dunkin' Donuts across the country, Christopher Hildreth, a former employee at the Jaffrey, New Hampshire location, has been charged with two counts of attempted simple assault after being caught placing his own "nasal mucus" in the chain's beloved coffee.

In a slightly ironic twist, his victims were none other than Detective Joseph Hileman and Lt. Terry Choate, two local police officers who happened to watch the entire debacle on video.

Should an employee receive workers' compensation for a sex injury incurred while on a business trip?

A court in Sydney, Australia this week has been tasked with answering just this question, with a woman claiming that she should be compensated for her sex injuries because they occurred "during the course of her employment."

In perhaps something just shy of an ingenious move, a local marijuana clinic in Lansing, Michigan, was offering an incentive to register for the upcoming city council election: you register, you get pot to vote.

Of course, the clinic, called Your Healthy Choice Clinic, has now drawn the ire of the Attorney General's office, reports the Chicago Tribune.

Originally, the clinic was publicizing the deal on its website. Prospective voters would get half a gram of marijuana, or an edible marijuana product, reports the Chicago Tribune.